Whew! I'm glad to see you decided to continue after your adventure with M. LeBrun in the last leçon. I hope that you'll excuse him if he offended you. He really doesn't mean to be rude and obnoxious. He just is! What can I say?!!!

Anyway,in the last two leçons, M. LeBrun pointed out to you that there was a difference in the small words (also called preposition words) which came before each word for each sport, namely, the changing of the word "le" to the word "au". The reason for this change is connected to the verb "jouer". It's another one of those "cultural" thought differences. Let me explain:

In English, when you are engaged in a sport you just "play it". In French, you don't just play a sport, you "play to the sport". Yeah, I know it makes no sense at all in English, but as I told you when you started this course, there are things that make sense in the French language that don't make sense in English and vice-versa. You just have to get used to it.

Anyway, in order to make this change from "play the game" to "play to the game" we have to add another word. That word is "à" (or "to" in English). Whenever "à" is placed with "le" before a word, we must make a change and form a new word. The word "au". The reason that we have to make this new word stems from that old problem of making the French language sound good. The words "à" and "le" together sound a little funny, especially before a noun that starts with a vowel, thus the need for the new word, "au".

Oh, one last thing before we move on. Since all of the sports that you have learned so far, have the word "le" at the beginning of them, what does that tell you about their gender? Yes! That they are masculine.

Please feel free to continue on to the next leçon. At a comfortable pace, of course!